How to save Thai boys from complex cave system? : NPR

The boys and their football coach, seen in a partially flooded cave in northern Thailand on Monday. Found after more than a week of research, they are mostly in a stable medical state and have received high-protein liquid food, officials said Tuesday.

Tham Luang / AP Rescue Operations Center / AP

hiding legend

rocking legend

Tham Luang Rescue Operation Center / AP

The boys and their football coach, seen in a partially flooded cave in northern Thailand on Monday. Found after more than a week of research, they are mostly in a stable medical condition and have received high protein liquid food, officials said Tuesday.

Tham Luang Rescue Operation Center / AP

When British volunteer divers managed the remarkable evening of Monday night, finding 12 Thai boys and their football coach stranded on a ledge of over a mile in a complex system of caves, they were greeted with a big thank-you. question. He was coming from the mouth of a gangly boy who had just spent nine days with his teammates stranded in the dark at half a mile underground

"When can we leave?"

As simple as this question may be, the difficulty of its answer came in relief as the sun set on Tuesday on Chiang Rai, the home of the labyrinthine passages of Tham Luang Nang No Cave. The boys and their 25-year-old coach face two main options for survival: either learning how to make their way out of the cave, or waiting for the flooding waters to finally begin to retreat.

With the end of the rainy season still several months, one of these options has obvious advantages: wait for things to dry up "seems a little untenable" , says journalist Michael Sullivan at Chiang Rai's Here & Now, where he follows rescue efforts

This does not mean that the alternative – teaching boys how to dive – presents a much easier perspective

"Although water levels have dropped," says the British Cave Rescue Council. , the small charity organization of volunteer divers, "dive conditions remain difficult and any attempt to dive boys and their coach will not be taken lightly because there are technical challenges and significant risks to consider" [19659014] its divers at the request of the Thai authorities. Bill Whitehouse, the group's vice president, tells Ari Shapiro that last week's call was even accompanied by plane tickets – "so they had to rush, finish their kit and surrender. at Heathrow Airport ready to take off. "

Hundreds of lifeguards gather in front of the cave Tuesday in Chiang Rai to help load materials and help rescue the 12 boys aged 11 to 16 years old and their 25 year old coach.

Linh Pham / Getty Images

hiding the legend

rocking legend

Linh Pham / Getty Images

Hundreds of rescuers gather outside the cave on Tuesday in Chiang Rai to help load materials and help rescue the 12 boys aged 11 to 16 and their 25-year-old coach.

Linh Pham / Getty Images

But now that the boys have been found, the SEALs of the Thai Navy have made efforts to transport them, using dive lines placed between the boys and the entrance to the cave.

They need food and essential medical supplies – and soon, we can count on them to make them disappear completely.

"These are really very small spaces that these [rescuers] were to reach, to reach the children in the first place. And you have to worry about those kids who scare a bit, "says Sullivan." I think … they will have two divers on each side of each boy, and they will have the divers who will guide them to the next day. entrance to the cave. "

But if it is the lifeguards of the avenue the intention to take, they will first have to wait for the boys to regain their strength.After more d & # 39; a week without food, they lost energy and muscle.

Arpakorn Yookongkaew, commander of the Thai Navy's SEAL, told local media that they focused on providing " digests and high-powered food with enough minerals. "He said Tuesday that seven members of his unit, including two health care professionals, are now with the boys and their trainer inside the cave, according to The Bangkok Post.

In the meantime, ] more than 2,500 gallons of water per hour are pumped out of the cave to ease the boys' dive. But the operation, even at its current scale, is likely to falter in the face of expected showers later this week.